Are you in immediate danger? Call 911. For confidential relationship support, contact CT Safe Connect: 888-774-2900.

Respect · Boundaries · Safety · Support

Healthy Relationships & Digital Safety

Everyone deserves relationships—online and offline—that feel safe, respectful, and free from pressure, fear, tracking, or control.

Check in on a relationship Get support

What should a healthy relationship feel like?

Dating, friendships, family relationships, and online connections can look different. The same basics still matter.

Respect

Your opinions, identity, time, friendships, and limits are taken seriously—even when you disagree.

Boundaries and consent

You can say yes, no, stop, or change your mind. Consent should be freely given, specific, and ongoing.

Trust without control

You do not have to hand over passwords, prove your location, reply instantly, or give up other relationships.

Do any of these feel familiar?

This is a private reflection tool, not a diagnosis. Your selections are not submitted or saved.

Check any behaviors you have noticed

Someone pressures, threatens, humiliates, or scares me. Someone repeatedly checks my location, accounts, messages, or who I spend time with. Someone keeps contacting me after I have asked them to stop, including through new accounts or other people. Someone pressures me to send an intimate image or threatens to share one. I change my behavior because I am worried about how someone will react.

If digital behavior is making you feel unsafe

You did not cause the abuse. You do not have to confront the person or handle it alone.

Get support first

Tell a trusted adult, advocate, counselor, or friend. If you may be in danger, make a safety plan before blocking someone or changing settings.

Preserve evidence

When safe, save dates, usernames, URLs, voicemails, screenshots, and a brief record of what happened. Store copies where the other person cannot access them.

Secure your accounts

From a safer device, change passwords, turn on two-step verification, review logged-in devices, and check location-sharing and shared cloud accounts.

Report and remove

Use platform reporting tools. If an intimate image taken before age 18 may be shared, use NCMEC’s Take It Down and talk with a trusted adult.

Important: Blocking, changing passwords, or turning off location sharing can sometimes alert an abusive person. If that could increase danger, contact CT Safe Connect from a safer device before making changes. The Quick Exit button replaces this page but does not erase browser history.

Know the law in Connecticut

Online conduct can have real-world legal consequences. These summaries are general education and do not determine whether a crime occurred.

Stalking and electronic monitoring

Connecticut’s stalking laws can apply to a repeated course of conduct that causes legally defined fear or distress. Depending on the circumstances, conduct may involve following, monitoring, tracking, or unwanted electronic contact.

Connecticut Penal Code: §§ 53a-181c–181e

Electronic harassment and threats

Repeated unwanted communications, threats, or conduct intended to harass, intimidate, or alarm someone may fall under Connecticut harassment or threatening laws, depending on the facts.

Connecticut Penal Code: including §§ 53a-182b and 53a-183

Intimate images and deepfakes

Sharing an identifiable person’s intimate image without consent may violate Connecticut law. Connecticut has also adopted protections addressing digitally altered or synthetically created intimate images.

Connecticut Penal Code: § 53a-189c
2026 Public Act 55

Protection orders

A person who has experienced stalking, sexual abuse, or physical abuse may be able to ask the Connecticut Superior Court for a civil protection order. An advocate or attorney can explain available options.

Connecticut General Statutes: § 46b-16a

Laws change and legal definitions are specific. For advice about a particular situation, contact CT Safe Connect, a qualified attorney, or law enforcement. Legal information reviewed September 2026.

Support and reporting options

Choose the option that best fits what is happening. Asking for help does not mean you have to make a report or end a relationship before you are ready.

CT Safe Connect

Free, confidential, 24/7 relationship and domestic-violence support in Connecticut. Call or text 888-774-2900.

Chat or learn more

Love Is Respect

Confidential information and support created for teens and young adults navigating dating and relationships.

Visit Love Is Respect

Take It Down

A free NCMEC tool that can help stop or remove online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images taken before age 18.

Use Take It Down

NCMEC CyberTipline

Report suspected online enticement, sextortion, or sexual exploitation involving a child.

Make a CyberTipline report

Connecticut 211

Find local counseling, victim services, shelter, legal assistance, and other community support.

Search Connecticut 211

A trusted adult

A parent, caregiver, school counselor, teacher, coach, healthcare provider, or TTYSB staff member can help you think through the next step.

Contact Tri-Town

Something is happening right now?

If someone is in immediate danger, has threatened violence, or is trying to meet or exploit a minor, call 911. Do not negotiate with someone making sextortion threats or send more images or money.

Call 911 CT Safe Connect

You deserve support without blame

Tri-Town Youth Services can help youth and families in Chester, Deep River, and Essex find information and local support.

Contact TTYSB